$1500 Keyboard - Anybody?

Posted on: March 18, 2007

You probably know that CeBIT
is going full force, right now. As you would expect from a leading IT
and telecom trade fair, loads of new interesting solutions were
presented. However, one stands out, right away. Not so much with its
features but rather by price - \$1,500 for a keyboard? And it's not even
platinum-plated or carrying proud tag of some insanely famous designer.

Optimus
Maximus
is a creation of Russian web/industrial design company Art. Lebedev
Studio. Each key on this
keyboard is an OLED screen that can be programmed to display any
character. So, effectively, the keyboard is fully customizable. Cool,
but... it ends up costing more than any keyboard you have ever seen.
According to some reports, it also "features" a constant high-pitch
noise from all the OLED goodness, but we have not tried it so - maybe
not.

In any case, even with the supposedly breakthrough approach to designing
keyboards, the first reaction when you look at the price tag is
inevitably in line with one of the comments to the wired.com blog
post:
"These Commie douches must be out of their arrogant minds. \$1500 for a
keyboard? Yeah, right, how about - GET REAL?". However, if you give it a
second thought you may appreciate the marketing genius behind the price.
Seriously, if not the scandalous price tag, what else would make this
gadget appear on the front-page of the wired.com coverage of CeBIT and
be a highlight of the show?

Well, maybe the "commie douches" are not so stupid, after all and
they've learned a thing or two about Shock
Advertising from their
Western brothers? Maybe... We'll see how this one goes and if the
keyboard will capture any real market. In my humble opinion, unless they
significantly drop the price very soon, they will prove right the
wired.com commenter.